In this Handbook, Steve Thomas and Padraic Fleming compile invaluable and original insights on the resilience of health systems in the face of shocks and crises, from economic and climate emergencies, to conflicts and pandemics. They examine how health system resilience has been conceptualised by scholars and applied in specific contexts, assessing different theoretical models for measuring and evaluating resilience, as well as highlighting the growing challenges facing health systems now and in the future.

Seizing a narrowing policy window in a post-pandemic context, the OECD and the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, with support from the European Commission, developed a comprehensive methodology culminating in a handbook on "Strengthening Health Systems: A Practical Handbook for Resilience Testing." Inspired by stress tests in various sectors, this methodology was piloted in Finland, Greece, and Spain throughout 2023.

The package of health system resilience indicators serves as a dedicated resource to measure and monitor health system resilience in routine operations as well as in the context of disruptive shocks and stressors. This work addresses an identified gap in measurement and monitoring of health system resilience. It complements the Health Systems Resilience Toolkit and supports implementation of the recommendations in WHO’s position paper on building health system resilience for UHC and health security. The package aims to support countries to progressively build their capacities to measure, monitor and build health system resilience from national to subnational levels covering health facilities and other service delivery platforms. It emphasizes an integrated approach to health system strengthening underpinned by essential public health functions, encompassing health emergency preparedness. It includes: - guidance on how to utilize and adapt the health system resilience indicators, including a step-by-step guide - a suite of recommended health system resilience indicators with technical specifications - supplementary indicators of relevance to health system resilience The primary target audience for this package is national and subnational health authorities (including planners and managers) and service providers, as well as local, regional, and global technical organizations and partners working on health system strengthening, including WHO, United Nations country teams, donors, nongovernment organizations, development and humanitarian agencies, and other health-related technical agencies.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented disruption worldwide highlighting once again the interdependency of health and socioeconomic development, and the global lack of health systems resilience. Two years into the pandemic, most countries report sustained disruptions across service delivery platforms and health areas with a profound impact on health outcomes. The impact of these disruptions is magnified within marginalized communities and in countries experiencing protracted conflict. There is an urgent need to focus on recovery through investment in the essential public health functions (EPHFs) and the foundations of health systems with a focus on primary health care, and whole-of-government and -society engagement. The aim of this Research Topic is to gather, transfer and promote operationalization of key experiences from COVID-19 to inform global and country level recovery that better promote health; guide policy direction towards building health systems resilience; and thereby ensure economic and social prosperity. Experience with COVID-19 has demonstrated that traditional approaches to health system strengthening have failed to achieve the complementary goals of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and health security with the divide between the most vulnerable and well-off only widening. Much of what had been learned from previous experiences such as Ebola in West Africa has not been widely applied. This has left health and economic systems vulnerable to 21 st century public health challenges, ranging from conflict and natural disasters to aging demographics and rising rates of non-communicable and communicable diseases and antimicrobial resistance. These challenges require intentional focus and investment as well as whole-of-government and -society engagement with health to build health system resilience. Greater action is needed to prevent the devastating effects of war and conflict on the health of the most vulnerable. This Research Topic will convene the knowledge and practices of leaders in public health, health systems, and humanitarian and development sectors. This is to ensure lessons from COVID-19 inform the recovery agenda and promote sustainable health and socioeconomic recovery for all. Lest we forget and find ourselves again unprepared and vulnerable in the face of an even greater threat.

Health system recovery from disruptive events presents a window of opportunity for substantial improvements, applying lessons from ongoing or past experiences with shocks to build back better. Therefore, in addition to facilitating restoration to the pre-shock state, health systems recovery processes including planning can also address pre-existing and ongoing gaps, weaknesses and inequities by facilitating continuous and systematic improvement leading to better performance and resilience. This WHO technical product aims to support countries to prioritize and mainstream health system recovery through effective planning as part of efforts to build health system resilience in support of universal health coverage, health security and socioeconomic development. While this document is developed for application in recovery context, it is adaptable to other health system strengthening and reform processes initiated in recognition of gaps in health system functions, not necessarily in the context of a shock event. The target audience is health authorities at national and subnational levels in countries, WHO, other United Nations agencies, technical partners, and donors with a role to support health systems in any context.

The Routledge Handbook on Climate Change and Health System Sustainability takes the reader on a journey to understand the interconnectedness of human health, climate change, and healthcare systems. The book begins by exploring how climate change is affecting human health through the increasing frequency of natural disasters, such as bush fires, droughts and heatwaves, and the emergence of new infectious diseases, such as the SARS-CoV2 virus, all of which drive up demand for health services that are already heavily burdened by increasing rates of chronic diseases and ageing populations. Chapters then turn to the contribution of the healthcare system itself to climate change— explaining how current clinical practices, including wasteful care of low value, create an unsustainable carbon footprint and threaten the very viability of healthcare systems. Throughout the volume, descriptions of practical solutions and implemented case studies are used to illustrate the feasibility of taking action in the real world of the healthcare delivery ecosystem. Bringing together a mix of forward-thinking environmental and health researchers, policymakers, leaders, managers, clinicians, patients, and health industry leaders to clarify the current state and future of sustainable healthcare systems, this book will be of interest to researchers and policymakers of climate and health systems.

Health system resilience is not an inevitable byproduct of any investment in health but must be intentionally programmed and developed with necessary input, investment and contextualization. This technical product aims to guide national, subnational and global health actors to operationalize the concept of health system resilience for advancement of universal health coverage, health security and ultimately better health for all. It supports the translation of relevant conceptual guidance and high-level recommendations into practical actions. The specific objectives are to: present a concise overview of the concept of health system resilience; provide a roadmap outlining practical and foundational steps for building health system resilience to be adapted to different contexts; share examples of actions and tools, including stakeholder roles, to support country application of the roadmap. The target audience for this work is the various stakeholders involved in strengthening health systems and public health including management of emergencies (from prevention and preparedness to response and recovery) and other public health challenges in countries. This ranges from the donors, policymakers and decision-makers at global, national and subnational levels to the implementing institutions and line managers of health system functions and services across the health system building blocks.

The first edition of Handbook of Human Factors and Ergonomics in Health Care and Patient Safety took the medical and ergonomics communities by storm with in-depth coverage of human factors and ergonomics research, concepts, theories, models, methods, and interventions and how they can be applied in health care. Other books focus on particular human

Health systems everywhere are expected to meet increasing public and political demands for accessible, high-quality care. Policy-makers, managers, and clinicians use their best efforts to improve efficiency, safety, quality, and economic viability. One solution has been to mimic approaches that have been shown to work in other domains, such as quality management, lean production, and high reliability. In the enthusiasm for such solutions, scant attention has been paid to the fact that health care as a multifaceted system differs significantly from most traditional industries. Solutions based on linear thinking in engineered systems do not work well in complicated, multi-stakeholder non-engineered systems, of which health care is a leading example. A prerequisite for improving health care and making it more resilient is that the nature of everyday clinical work be well understood. Yet the focus of the majority of policy or management solutions, as well as that of accreditation and regulation, is work as it ought to be (also known as ’work-as-imagined’). The aim of policy-makers and managers, whether the priority is safety, quality, or efficiency, is therefore to make everyday clinical work - or work-as-done - comply with work-as-imagined. This fails to recognise that this normative conception of work is often oversimplified, incomplete, and outdated. There is therefore an urgent need to better understand everyday clinical work as it is done. Despite the common focus on deviations and failures, it is undeniable that clinical work goes right far more often than it goes wrong, and that we only can make it better if we understand how this happens. This second volume of Resilient Health Care continues the line of thinking of the first book, but takes it further through a range of chapters from leading international thinkers on resilience and health care. Where the first book provided the rationale and basic concepts of RHC, the Resilience of Everyday Clinical Work b